Democracy and communication : A study of the European Union's communication with the citizens until 2005, from a deliberative perspective

by Borén, Lina

Abstract (Summary)

There is a gap between the citizens and the political institutions of the European Union. Several years of low participation in the European Parliamentary elections and a number of surveys shows that the EU has weak legitimacy in the eyes of the people.This thesis is a critical study of EU’s communication with the citizens until 2005. Based on Habermas’s theoroetical framework, it searches for deliberative qualities within the EU’s structure. According to Habermas, political legitimacy requires that people can shape and express their opinions in a public sphere, but the EU does not really have a public sphere. He also emphasizes the importance of good channels of communication between people and politicians, but within the EU, communication has been synonymous with information (or marketing) and practically unilateral. This leads to the conclusion that the EU’s lack of deliberative qualities can have affected EU’s political legitimacy negatively.